Stance

Stance determines how much a character is focused on defending vs. attacking. It is controlled by the STANCE verb.

There are six main stances in which a character can exist: offensive, advance, forward, neutral, guarded, and defensive. In offensive, a character is devoting all of his or her efforts toward attacking. When in stance defensive, that character is dedicating all energy toward defending. Neutral stands in between the two, and forward and guarded allow further incrementing. Characters who are in stance defensive will generally take less damage from physical attacks, including bolt spells, than those in stance offensive.

In stance offensive, 100% of a character's weapon skill is applied to AS, and the character has a far reduced chance to evade, block or parry.

In stance defensive, only 50% of a character's weapon skill is applied to AS, and the character has the highest chance to evade, block or parry.

Numerical Equivalents

Stance is often represented in formulas as a numerical percentage value from 0 to 100. These numbers are an abstract representation of a character's "defensiveness". Some situations allow for finer gradation than the six stances (see below).

The POSTURE verb can also be used to set stance, but will always display changes to others in the room as if in STANCE VERBOSE mode.

Verbose messaging:

{Character} drops all defense as he moves into a battle-ready stance.

{Character} moves into an aggressive stance, clearly preparing for an attack.

{Character} switches to a slightly aggressive stance.

{Character} falls back into a relaxed, neutral stance.

{Character} moves into a defensive stance, clearly guarding himself.

{Character} moves into a defensive stance, ready to fend off an attack.

Finer Stance Adjustments

There are times when a character can end up between the six main stances.

Offensive combat abilities such as Feint and Call Wind (912) can force a target to change their stance, and these adjustments generally do not come in increments of 20%. For example, an endroll of +137 on a feint would move the target 37 percentage points closer to offensive: if they were in guarded stance (80%), they would be in a 43% stance, just barely more defended than forward (40%).

Wizards with the Fire aspect of Mage Armor active CHANNEL their spells in a more offensive stance than they are actually in, with the number of "bonus stance points" based on their Fire Lore.

Combat Mastery, a combat maneuver, and Stance Perfection, the corresponding Warrior Trick, allow a character to refine their stance further. Both skills initially allow the character to change their stance in 10% increments. As the associated skill is further trained, 5% increments become available.